park in power. voters in south korea elect their first female president. south koreans have woken up to a new era of politics. park will become the first woman to lead their country. the candidate from the ruling party defeated moon of the democratic united party in a tight race. >> translator: i won't forget you supported and trusted me in this campaign. i'll build a society where people can make their dreams come true and i will create an area of people's happiness where everyone can feel it is worthwhile. >> park won more than 51% of the vote. moon took 48%.

during the campaign park contributed her wealth of political experience. she squared off with moon on a number of issues. they say powerful business blogs are taking market share away from small and medium size firms. park argued south korea needs to do more to build trust with north korea. her father was president too so she understands some of the difficulties she'll face. we have more on that. >> reporter: this victory is thanks to the enthusiasm of people who want to raise their living standard. the name recognition helped her win a neck and neck race with

moon of the opposition democratic united party. a key pointed issue in the election was narrowing the countries grueling growth divide. they are getting the benefit of the country's economic growth. >> translator: i hope miss park will fulfill her campaign pledge. i want her to raise that class up from the bottom. >> reporter: park has promised voters she will work to narrow the gap between the rich and poor. another major issue on her plate is north korea.

a long range missile was test launched last week despite protests. park said shes p's prepared for bilateral summit. >> translator: my north korea policy is to build up national security first and then rebuild the relationship based on trust. peace maintained by just providing aid is not real peace. north korea's ruling party newspaper has already attacked park. an editorial on wednesday said she represents the south second consecutive government. it warned it will harm bilateral relations between the two sides. nearly 76% of south koreans

turned out to vote, higher than the two previous elections. although park defeated moon after a tight race, the margin was only three points. that means she cannot afford to ignore opinions from the opposition while running the country. the very first woman president in the country. there's no doubt park's victory has opened a new era in south kor korea. all eyes are on if she can maintain strong economic growth and find ways to improve relations with the north. japanese officials took a close interest in the race and said they will look for ways to improve relations. her father normalized diplomatic

ties between the two countries in 1965 and they welcome the fact she looks upon japan as a friendly nation. not all citizens share her views. park insists they are south korean territory. many are wary about the japanese leadership too. a senior official says diplomats hope to smooth over some of these issues. they hope abe and park will be able to meet after her inauguration in february. barack obama says people in his administration have an obligation to prevent mass

shootings. he launched a task force less than a week after a school shooting in connecticut. >> i will use all the powers of this effort to help advance e t efforts aimed at preventing a tragedy like this. >> vice president joe biden will lead the task force which will include other members of the cabinet. he said there's a growing consensus among americans to ban the sale of military style assault weapons. he says it supports stricter background checks on buyers. last week a gunman walked into a school. he killed 20 children and six adults. obama has been struggling with another file. >> the u.s. fiscal cliff crisis and the republicans and democrats talks between the republicans to avert still not

making much progress. president obama has rm asked to make further compromising. >> i have gone at least halfways in meeting some of the republicans concerns. what separates us is $100 milli million. >> the white house presented a compromise plan earlier this week. obama's original plan was to impose tax increases for the wealthy who make $250,000 or more a year. now he raised the threshold to $400,000 or more. republicans represented by house speaker john boehner presented a counteroffer. they're asking to review medical

and pension spending. they will pass the bill as early as thursday. it will include tax breaks for the middle class and make the tax increases with an annual income of $1 million or more. you've heard people in the financial markets talk a lot about the fiscal cliff. that's because if the u.s. economy falls off this cliff, ripple effects are expected. >> reporter: the term fiscal cliff has been making headlines recently. if democrats and republicans cannot come to an agreement on resolving the fiscal cliff by year end sudden tax increases and drastic budget cuts will

take effect and will slow the u.s. economy. let's look into the two main components of the fiscal cliff. first, taxes. democrats want to let tax cuts for the wealthy to expire but republicans are generally opposed to the plan. individuals would be hit with huge tax hikes if lawmakers cannot find common ground. the second component of the fiscal cliff is large federal spending cuts. the cuts will take effect if the two parties fail to strike a dial. republicans are against that happening. the u.s. congressional belt tightening could cause negative growth by the fourth quarter of 2013. the unemployment rate is expected to rise above 9% if the

economy dampens. analysts are focusing on whether u.s. leaders can avoid a fiscal cliff and keep the recovery on track. >> time to get a check on stocks. the nikkei average is down due to profit taking after three days of gain. currently it's at 10,080. investors are eagerly awaiting whether the bank of japan will take further monetary easing steps. let's take a look at the currency markets. the yen is little change against other major currencies. the dollar is trading slightly lower against the yen. that's after it rose near a one year and eight month high in overseas trading on wednesday. some traders are selling the

dollar to take profits before today's announcement from the bank of japan. dollar yen is at 84.26 and the euro is lower against the yen. taking a look at other markets in the asia pacific region, south korea's kospi is trading slightly up. let's also take a look at australia. that's trading higher by over .1 of a percent. ubs will pay about $1.5 billion in fines. that's for rigging key interest rates. the total amount that ubs will pay is greater than that of british bank barkleys. they paid over $400 million in fines for its wrong doing. ubs admitted that its employees

across its global network has manipulated the london interoffice rates. the rate is used as a global benchmark for financial trading. at least 45 ubs employees were involved in the manipulation or recognized the ilegality their contact. the former trader urged his colleagues to make forged reports on the key rate. he also reportedly predicted when they are predicted by 0.01% point he could make a profit of over $1 million. that is the latest in business headlines. here is a check on regional markets.

a party inquiry has come upon bbc. it criticizes executives for the case. the management had been suspected of exerting pressure in an attempt to cover up the scandal. the report says inquiry found no evidence of a cover up but it

says the decision by the editor of the program to halt its broadcast was flawed. >> they found clear and compelling evidence that jimmy was a pedophile. the decision by the editor to drop the original investigation was clearly flawed. >> in response to the report the bbc has decided to replace the editor. the deputy director of news will also resign soon. in november the then bbc director stepped to take responsibility after the broadcaster wrongly implicated a politician in a separate child abuse allegation. the head of japan's nuclear watchdog says it cannot begin safety screening until new safety standards are set up in july.

the chairman wants to keep the debate on safety open to the public. >> translator: even if you till utilities apply to restart, we cannot review safety rules until they are made into law next july. >> he said he cannot make any decision at this stage sand has no intention of suspended the reactors any time soon. japan coast guard commanders say they need more money to do their job. they want to increase their presence in japanese water. they need more resources to pay for personnel and equipment. coast guard commander says crews have seen more and more chinese government ships around the senkaku islands. japan controls the islands.

china and taiwan claim them. >> translator: we haven't requested additional patrol vessels for our fleet but it's becoming necessary to add more ships and we'll need more personnel to staff them. >> disputes and missile testing in north korea make more patrols a necessity. the defense ministry had to rewrite its original report after hundreds of problem were found. it's the impact of moving the station in the north part of the prefecture. japan and the united states agreed on the relocation in 2006. okinawa found more than 500 problems in the first report. the new report assesses noise

disturbances over a wider area and takes into account the possibility that u.s. military aircraft could fly off course. the officials say they will also address the problem of low frequency noise. experts say the defense ministry is expected to apply to the okinawa government to start reclaiming land for the relocation under the new cabinet. times have changed for japanese electronic firms and many have lost the innovation that made them successful. one is bucking that trend with home grown products that he is producing and selling single handedly. >> reporter: the glow of a lamp, but with a flick of the finger on a smart phone or tablet computer it emits music.

an object knemade of traditiona paper. just the slightest touch is enough to turn on a light. these products are the creation of a designer who runs his company out of his home. for almost 30 years he worked for a major appliance maker but with the recession the company stopped encouraging new ideas. feeling constricted he quit three years ago and went independent. he likes to call himself the world's smallest electronics maker. >> translator: the biggest problem is all the products on the market were the same. the that made me want to design original products even more. >> reporter: taking advantage of the latest computers and

software he was able to start designing on his own. 3-d programs help him develop new designs and his tablet allows him to keep in communication with his customers. he mainly sells his products online but recently he's begun marking them to a company that has stores throughout japan. he likes to use components made by japanese artisans. the lamp shade incorporates the silver thread used by komono makers. the cabinet is made by a wood worker. he also sours components from small manufacturers with highly sophisticated skills who have been doing badly since the economic downturn. he's currently working on a new product. a lamp that can roll around the room and controlled from a smart

phone. >> translator: i'd like this part to be one size bigger. >> reporter: this company has a strong reputation for the sophistication of its welding. generally it only works with large manufacturers and rarely takes on customers that don't have guaranteed profit. >> translator: the design has a very distinctive feel. when it's finished i think it will have appeal in other fields. >> translator: i know there are plenty of great products being made around japan. my aim is to discover them and

incorporate them in my own creations. >> reporter: he's bringing together manufacturers with advanced know how from all over the country. he may be the world's smallest electronics maker but that's not stopping him from thinking big. the global campaign to eradicate polio has been focusing on pakistan. health workers have become targets of violence. 12 people were killed in a string of attacks this week. the world health organization is suspended vaccination drives across the country. international organizations are condemning the incidents and the disruption to efforts to end the disease. on wednesday a female health worker and her driver were shot dead in northwest pakistan.

in the nearby city of peshawar a male team member was killed. the latest fatalities come after five anti-polio workers were killed on monday and tuesday. >> translator: i don't know what i should do. my mind isn't functioning. >> in a separate incident an 18-year-old woman who was supervising a vaccination campaign was shot dead on tuesday. in another attack a group of health workers were targets in a north western town on monday and three members of security forces accompanying them were killed. it's not clear who is behind the attacks. the taliban has denounced anti-polio campaigns. accusations

condemn eed the attacks. people have been dealing with widespread flooding in sri lanka. >> the rain has been in parts of northwest sri lanka. three days of severe wet weather had caused floods and landslides. it has left 20 people dead. thousands of houses are damaged. the floods also destroyed several,0 several thousand acres of rice patties. unfortunately, rain is not going anywhere. we anticipate rain to continue into the weekend and actually it

will continue into january. that could raise the risks of flooding in a landslide even further. up towards the north precipitation was not too bad. in terms of temperatures it's been quite serious. we have a strong high pressure system centered over siberia. this one is packing extremely cold air. you can see purple. this means much lower than freezing temperatures. into the weekend the area of purple will shift toward the east lowering temperatures even further across parts of mongolia and northern china. your high on sunday in and seoul could drop down to minus 7 degrees. the isobars are close to each other. some of it is reaching the sea

of japan. the we will see an additional 35 centimeters of snow across this area into the next 24 hours. that is raising the risk of avalanches. down towards the south the strong winds are quietening creating thunder showers in southern china. some will be moving into the southern islands of japan. moving into the american continent. the next pacific system is moving into the british isles and the pacific northwest bringing another round of wet and windy conditions as well as heavy mountain snow. the mountains will see an additional 40 centimeters snow. we have a more potent storm system. the system will head towards the great lakes region into the next 24 hours. wisconsin and iowa you could be seeing as much as 30 centimeters of snow in a period of 24 hours.

chicago you haven't had measurable snow since march 4th this year. fieblly heavy snow is on the way for you. down towards the south, thunder showers to the east and great lakes region, there's a risk of severe thunderstorms, gusty winds and tornadoes. temperatures still on the warmer side in atlanta but dropping down into the single digits. 8 degrees in chicago. still on the warmer side but we'll be cooling down to the freezing mark as we head into your friday. here is your extended forecast.

that does it for this edition of "newsline." do join us dpen.